Method and system to facilitate on-line trading

ABSTRACT

A method and system to facilitate on-line trading is presented. An example system, in one embodiment, comprises a web page scanner, a trading control generator, an event detector, and a trading ticket generator. The web page scanner may be configured to scan a web page in order to detect security symbol information. The trading control generator may be configured to present a trading control to associate visually the trading control with the detected security symbol information, the trading control to access a trading service. The event detector may be configured to detect an event associated with the trading control, so that the trading ticket generator receives a request to launch a trading ticket associated with the security symbol information. A trading ticket may be then utilized by a user for submitting a security order using the trading service.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to the field of computer software and hardware,specifically to a computer-implemented method and system to facilitateon-line trading.

BACKGROUND

The Internet has made it possible for computer users all over the worldto interact and communicate electronically. Such electroniccommunication supports trading in currencies, stocks, commodities andsome of the newer forms of securities such as derivatives and the like,as opposed to the traditional trading “floor,” in which traders wouldneed to be physically present in order to place buy and sell orders.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of exampleand not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in whichlike reference numbers indicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a network environment withinwhich an example method and system to facilitate on-line trading using acertain trading platform may be implemented;

FIG. 2 is block diagram of a client-side trading module, in accordancewith one example embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method to provide access to a tradingservice from a third party web page utilizing a client-side tradingmodule, in accordance with an example embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method to facilitate loading of a pre-filledtrading ticket;

FIG. 5 illustrates example operations performed at a server systemhosting a trading service module to provide data to a client-sidetrading module, according to one example embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates example operations performed at a server systemhosting a trading service module to submit a security order for a user,according to one example embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates a user interface including a trading control toprovide access to the trading service from a web page provided by athird party, according to one example embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates a user interface including an overlaid trading ticketconfigured to provide access to the trading service, according to oneexample embodiment; and

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic representation of an example machine in theform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Internet traders generally use a wide variety of online sources fortheir investing research. At the same time, the timing of execution isan important aspect of a trader's success. When traders find actionablecontent (e.g., information related to securities) on a website it takesa couple of steps, and hence time, to act upon this information. For thepurposes of this description, a security is a financial instrument thatcan be publicly traded on an (electronic) exchange. Securities include,but are not limited to common stocks, derivative (finance), currencies,commodities, and certain over-the-counter (OTC) products.

An example method and system to facilitate on-line trading may allow fora near-instantaneous response whenever a trader detects a piece ofinformation on any website, and wishes (or at least considers) toimmediately act upon that information.

A computer-implemented system and method to facilitate on-line tradingmay be provided to permit users to access a trading center (e.g., anon-line trading service hosted by a server system of a provider that maybe referred to as a trading server) in a semi-automated manner, from anywebsite that contains potentially actionable content that can beresolved into a known security symbol. For the purposes of thisdescription, potentially actionable content that can be resolved into aknown security symbol may be referred to as security symbol information.Security symbol information may include, e.g., stock symbols or thecorresponding names of publicly traded companies, information associatedwith commodities, information associated with currencies, etc. In oneexample embodiment, permitting users to access a trading center from anywebsite that contains potentially actionable content may be achieved byutilizing a client-side module, such as, for example, a desk topapplication, a widget, a browser plug-in or a tool bar, that is incommunication with a trading server and is configured to scan the webpage presented by the browser for any text containing a known securitysymbol or any other media (e.g., video, audio, image) or code (e.g.,format, tag, bookmark, cookie) that can be resolved into a knownsecurity symbol. In one embodiment, the scanning of a web page may beperformed only with respect to those web pages that were identified bythe client-side trading module as associated with a financial orinvesting website. In other embodiments, all web pages loaded by thebrowser may be scanned for information indicative of a security symbol,such as the actual security symbols or the names of companies.

The information indicative of a security symbol may be determined as aresult of the scanning of a web page using a configuration file thatcontains semantic patterns associated with websites, web pages andInternet locations. The client-side trading module may then display arecognizable visual control (e.g., a brightly-colored “Z”) next to thesecurity symbol or next to the name of a company that has an associatedsecurity symbol. The visual control, termed a “trading control,” may beinvoked or triggered, e.g., by clicking on the trading control or bymerely hovering over the trading control. The triggering of the tradingcontrol, in one embodiment, may cause the client-side trading module toactivate a secure trading ticket that may be pre-filled with informationassociated with the security symbol or information associated with theuser's trading account.

The trading ticket may be presented as a draggable overlay on the webpage, so it may not require the user to open a new browser window. Asmentioned above, the trading ticket may be pre-filled with the resolvedsecurity symbol, relevant (financial) data associated with the securitysymbol (such as, e.g., the last trade, bid, ask, volume, analystratings, community data), and may also indicate relevant trading accountinformation (e.g., buying power) in order to aid the user to make a fastand easy trading decision. The trading ticket may require minimumadditional information to be entered by the user (e.g., buy/sell,market/limit) to complete the order for submission. Various options topull and display additional relevant information from the trading servermay also be provided via the client-side module. The orders submittedutilizing the trading ticked described above may be handled in the sameway as any trading orders submitted directly from the trading serviceprovider's website. An example method and system to facilitate on-linetrading may be implemented in the context of a network environment 100illustrated in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, the network environment 100 may include clientsystems 110 and 120 and a server system 140. The server system 140, inone example embodiment, may host a trading service module 142 providingan on-line trading service. The client systems 110 and 120 may runrespective browser applications 112 and 122 and may also host respectiveclient-side trading modules. A client side trading module, in oneexample embodiment, may be provided to facilitate access to the tradingservice provided by the trading service module 142 from web pages thatare not associated with the provider of the trading service (e.g., a webpage associated with a financial website provider's computer system150).

A client-side trading module may be implemented, e.g., as a browserplug-in (e.g., a trading plug-in 114 at the client system 110), abrowser toolbar (not shown), a desk top module (e.g., a trading module124 at the client system 120), etc. The trading module 124 may beconfigured to communicate with the trading service module 142 hosted bythe server system 140 via a communication plug-in 123 provided with thebrowser application 122. A client-side trading module may have access tothe trading service module 142 hosted by the server system 140 via acommunications network 130. The communications network 130 may be apublic network (e.g., the Internet, a wireless network, etc.) or aprivate network (e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), Intranet, etc.). The trading service module 142 may use asecurity symbol library 160, as well as a financial sites library (notshown) in order to accommodate requests from client-side tradingmodules.

In one example embodiment, the trading plug-in 114 (or the communicationplug-in 123 associated with the trading module 124) comprises aJavaScript code and a configuration file. “JavaScript™” is a trademarkof Sun Microsystems. The JavaScript code, in one embodiment, comprises aplurality of modules configured to perform various functions, asdescribed further below. The configuration file may serve to recognizerelevant websites (including domains and/or sub domains) that maypresent financial information. The configuration file may also directthe trading plug-in 114 to include certain pages available on afinancial web site but exclude some pages (e.g., personal finance pagesof users). The configuration file may also include informationassociated with respective locations of web pages that are likely toinclude a security symbol or related information such as company name.In one embodiment, in order to determine respective locations of webpages that are likely to include a security symbol or relatedinformation, the configuration file may be adapted to recognize HTMLtags (e.g., <h1>), specific text (e.g., “Last trade:”), contextualinformation such as a URL string (e.g.,http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AAPL), etc. In one embodiment, the scanningof a web page and recognizing of security symbol information can bebased on any information that is present in media (e.g., video, audio,image) or code (e.g., format, tag, bookmark, cookie) that is involved inthe web browsing session.

For each combination of website/page/location recognized by theconfiguration file, the JavaScript code performs a scan for securitysymbols (or related information like company names). In one embodiment,when it is determined that a certain web page is associated with afinancial web site and is not subject to exclusion according to thesettings of the configuration file, the scanning of the web page may beeither generic or tailored specifically to that web page.

In one example embodiment, the configuration file determines whether acertain web page should be subject to the scanning process. When thescanning of the web page suggested by the configuration file isperformed, any determined securities symbols may be verified against thesymbol library 160. For each security symbol (or related informationlike company name) identified by the JavaScript code, a visual controlis added to the web page.

A configuration file provided with the trading plug-in 114 may beperiodically updated or replaced with the latest version available atthe trading server 140. For example, when the browser application 112 islaunched and the plug-in 114 is activated, the plug-in 114 connects tothe server system 140 and obtains the latest version of theconfiguration file. Alternatively, the configuration file may be updatedautomatically, according to a predetermined update schedule. An exampleclient-side trading module may be described with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system 200 to facilitate on-line trading,in accordance with one example embodiment. The system 200 may correspondto the plug-in 114 of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the system 200, in oneembodiment, comprises a web page scanner 202, a trading controlgenerator 204, an event detector 206, and a trading ticket generator218. The web page scanner 202 may be configured to scan a web page inorder to detect security symbol information. The trading controlgenerator 204 may be configured to present a trading control toassociate visually the trading control with the detected security symbolinformation. The trading control may be activated in order to access atrading service. A trading control may be, for example, an actionableicon or some other control that could be activated by clicking or doubleclicking on the icon, by positioning a cursor over the icon, or by someother action or input such as, e.g., a market data feed (e.g., pricechange, news event). The event detector 206 may be configured to detectan event associated with the trading control (e.g., a click), so thatthe trading ticket generator 218 receives a request to launch a tradingticket associated with the security symbol information. In oneembodiment, the event detector 206 may include a click detector 214 todetect click events and a hover detector 216 may be configured to detecthover events. As mentioned above, a trading ticket may be then utilizedby a user for submitting a security order using the trading service.

The trading ticket generator 218 may also be configured to obtain, fromthe trading service, data suitable for pre-filling the trading ticket(e.g., the security symbol, relevant (financial) data associated withthe security symbol, and relevant trading account information) and topre-fill the trading ticket with the obtained data. As is described infurther detail below, the system 200 can be used to facilitate on-linetrading for a user through a certain trading service when the user hasan account with the trading service and when a secure session has beenestablished for the user.

The system 200 may also include a session module 208, a web page sourcedetector 210, and a security symbol resolver 212. The session module 208may be configured to determine whether a user associated with the eventassociated with the trading control has an account with the tradingservice and whether a secure session with the trading service has beenestablished for the user. The web page source detector 210 may beconfigured to determine whether the web page currently loaded by theassociated browser is a relevant financial or investing web page, whichmay be achieved by sending a match request to the trading service thatmay have access to a library of relevant financial and investingwebsites. The security symbol resolver 212 may be configured tocommunicate, to the trading service, a request to resolve a securitysymbol information (e.g., to provide a security symbol that correspondsto the security symbol information, such as the name of a company, or toconfirm that the security symbol detected on a web page is a validsecurity symbol). The security symbol resolver 212 may also beconfigured to receive a resolved security symbol from the tradingservice. In some embodiments, the web page scanner 202 utilizes aconfiguration file 220 for scanning web pages and determining securitysymbols based on semantic patterns provided in the configuration file220 so that the security symbol resolver 212 may not be necessary.

Also shown in FIG. 2 is a notification module 222. The notificationmodule 222 may be configured to receive, from the trading service 142 ofFIG. 1, messages associated with the disposition of respective submittedorders and generate notifications for the user, e.g., in the form of apop-up window, status bar extension, sound, or otherwise. For example,the trading service 142 may report to the system 200 that the submittedorder was accepted, rejected, executed, or cancelled. In response, thenotification module 222 may generate a pop-up window, status barextension, sound, or otherwise, to present the received message from thetrading service 142 to the user.

It will be noted, that while FIG. 2 shows particular modules as part ofanother component (e.g., the click detector 214 and the hover detector216 being part of the event detector 206), other embodiments may beprovided where some modules of the system 200 shown as separatecomponents are implemented as a single module. Conversely, embodimentsmay be provided where a component that is shown in FIG. 2 as a singlemodule may be implemented as two or more separate components. Variousoperations performed by a system to facilitate on-line trading may bediscussed with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method 300 to provide access to a tradingservice from a third party web page, according to one exampleembodiment. The method 300 may be performed by processing logic that maycomprise hardware (e.g., dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode,etc.), software (such as run on a general purpose computer system or adedicated machine), or a combination of both. In one example embodiment,the processing logic resides at the trading plug-in 114 or a tradingmodule 124 shown in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 3, the method 300 commences at operations 310 and 320,where the web page source detector 210 of FIG. 2 determines a source ofa web page loaded by a client's browser and, based on the determinedsource, identifies the web page as a relevant web page (e.g., a web pageassociated with a financial or investing website). The web page sourcedetector 210 may obtain information regarding a source of a web pagefrom a trading service running on a server system. As mentioned above,the operations for evaluating a web page to determine whether it isassociated with a financial or investing website may be optional, and,in some embodiments, any web page loaded by the browser associated witha trading plug-in or a trading module on the client system is processedto determine information that may potentially be resolved into asecurity symbol. The web page scanner 202 of FIG. 2 scans the web page,at operation 330, to identify security symbol information. At operation340, the security symbol resolver 212 may submit a request including theidentified security symbol information to the trading service to obtaina resolved security symbol (e.g., a confirmation that the identifieddata associated with a security symbol is associated with a validsecurity ticker symbol). In some embodiments, the initial scanningperformed at operation 330 may be based on semantic patterns provided inthe configuration file 220 of FIG. 2 and thus the resolving operation340 is not performed.

At operation 350, the trading control generator 204 of FIG. 2 generatesa trading control to be presented on the web page in a manner thatassociates the trading control with the security symbol information. Inone embodiment, security symbol information is a stock symbol or thename of a company. Thus, a user that has an account with or has aninterest in using the trading service provided at the server system 140of FIG. 1 is permitted to access the trading service from any thirdparty web page, by activating the trading control presented at operation350. At operation 360, the trading ticket generator 218 of FIG. 2 loadsa trading ticket associated with the security symbol information inresponse to a request to activate the trading control. The tradingticket may be pre-filled with the data associated with the securitysymbol information. The trading control may be activated by, e.g.,clicking on the control, by detecting that a pointer is hovering overthe trading control (detecting a hover event), etc. The pre-filledtrading ticket may be utilized by a user to submit a security order,provided the user has an account with the trading service and a securesession with the trading service has been established. Exampleoperations that are performed in the process of determining whether auser has an account with the trading system and whether a secure sessionwith the trading service has been established for the user may bediscussed with reference to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method 400 to facilitate loading of apre-filled trading ticket, according to one example embodiment. Themethod 400 may be performed by processing logic that may comprisehardware (e.g., dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.),software (such as run on a general purpose computer system or adedicated machine), or a combination of both. In one example embodiment,the processing logic resides at the trading plug-in 114 or a tradingmodule 124 shown in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 4, the method 400 commences at operations 410, wherethe event detector 206 of FIG. 2 detects a triggering event for thepurpose of invoking a trading control associated with a security symbol.The session module 208 of FIG. 2 determines, at operation 420, whether asecure session with the trading service was established for the user. Ifthe session has been established for the user, the trading ticketgenerator 218 of FIG. 2 loads a pre-filled trading ticket associatedwith the security symbol, at operation 440. As mentioned above, thetrading ticket may be utilized for placing an order with the tradingservice.

If it is determined, at operation 420, that a session with the tradingservice has not been established for the user, the session module 208presents a user with an authentication/registration interface thatpermits a user to either provide authentication information in order toestablish a session with the trading service or, if the user does notyet have an account with the trading service, to create an account withthe trading service, at operation 430. If it is determined, at operation450, that the user submitted authentication information, the user isauthenticated at operation 470, which may include sending anauthentication request to the trading service and receiving a responsefrom the trading service. If the authentication information was notprovided and a request for a new user registration is detected, anaccount with the trading service is created for the user at operation460.

When the user is authenticated at operation 470, the session module 208invokes a secure session with the trading service for the user atoperation 480, and the trading ticket generator 218 loads a pre-filledtrading ticket. In some embodiments, data to be used for pre-filling atrading ticket may be obtained by the trading ticket generator 218 fromthe trading service (e.g., from the trading service module 142 residingat the server system 140 of FIG. 1. Some example operations performed atthe trading service module 142 may be described with reference to FIG. 5and FIG. 6.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method 500 to provide data to a client-sidetrading module, according to one example embodiment. The method 500 maybe performed by processing logic that may comprise hardware (e.g.,dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.), software (such asrun on a general purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), or acombination of both. In one example embodiment, the processing logicresides at the trading service module 142 shown in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 5, the method 500 commences at operation 510, where arequest to resolve a security symbol is received from a trading module(e.g., a trading plug-in) installed on a client computer system. Asecurity symbol may be resolved by matching security symbol informationreceived with the request with a record in the security symbol library160 of FIG. 1. The resolved security symbol is provided to the client atoperation 520. In response to a request to provide data for generating atrading ticket for a user (operation 530), the trading servicedetermines whether the user has an account with the trading service andthat a secure session with the trading service has been established forthe user (operation 540). At operation 550, the trading service mayprovide to the client data for pre-filling the trading ticket for theuser.

As mentioned above, the method and system described herein maybeutilized advantageously to permit a user to access the trading platformand submit orders from any third party web page. FIG. 6 illustrates amethod 600 for submitting a security order for a user, where a tradeprocess is initiated from a third party web page. As shown in FIG. 6,the trading service module 142 of FIG. 1 receives, from a client system,a request to submit a security order for a user, at operation 610. Therequest, in one example embodiment, is associated with a trading ticketpresented in a context of a web page of a third party provider. Atoperation 620, the trading service module parses the data received fromthe trading ticket to determine and validate the data needed forsubmitting the order. The determined data is used by the trading servicemodule 142 to submit the order for the user at operation 630. Atoperation 640, the trading service module 142 provides a confirmation ofthe submitted order to the user.

FIG. 7 illustrates a user interface 700 including a trading control 710.As shown in FIG. 7, the trading control 710 is displayed such that itsposition on the third party web page indicates that it is associatedwith a security or company identified in area 720. FIG. 8 illustrates auser interface 800 showing a trading ticket 810 overlaid over the thirdparty web page area. The security symbol “ACME” shown in field 820 ispre-filled in the trading ticket 810 using the techniques describedabove. In addition, the trading ticket 810 can be pre-filled withrelevant (financial) data associated with the security symbol, andrelevant trading account information (not shown in 810).

FIG. 9 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system 900 within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed. In alternative embodiments, themachine operates as a stand-alone device or may be connected (e.g.,networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine mayoperate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in aserver-client network environment, or as a peer machine in apeer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine may be apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, anetwork router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing aset of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to betaken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine isillustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include anycollection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (ormultiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 900 includes a processor 902 (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) orboth), a main memory 904 and a static memory 906, which communicate witheach other via a bus 908. The computer system 900 may further include avideo display unit 910 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or acathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system 900 also includes analpha-numeric input device 912 (e.g., a keyboard), a user interface (UT)navigation device 914 (e.g., a cursor control device), a disk drive unit916, a signal generation device 918 (e.g., a speaker) and a networkinterface device 920.

The disk drive unit 916 includes a machine-readable medium 922 on whichis stored one or more sets of instructions and data structures (e.g.,software 924) embodying or utilized by any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The software 924 may alsoreside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 904and/or within the processor 902 during execution thereof by the computersystem 900, with the main memory 904 and the processor 902 alsoconstituting machine-readable media.

The software 924 may further be transmitted or received over a network926 via the network interface device 920 utilizing any one of a numberof well-known transfer protocols (e.g., Hyper Text Transfer Protocol(HTTP)).

While the machine-readable medium 922 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readablemedium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring and encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machineand that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of embodiments of the present invention, or that iscapable of storing and encoding data structures utilized by orassociated with such a set of instructions. The term “machine-readablemedium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to,solid-state memories, optical and magnetic media. Such media may alsoinclude, without limitation, hard disks, floppy disks, flash memorycards, digital video disks, random access memory (RAMs), read onlymemory (ROMs), and the like.

The embodiments described herein may be implemented in an operatingenvironment comprising software installed on a computer, in hardware, orin a combination of software and hardware.

Thus, a method and system to facilitate on-line trading has beendescribed. Although embodiments have been described with reference tospecific example embodiments, it will be evident that variousmodifications and changes may be made to these embodiments withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the inventive subjectmatter. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regardedin an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented system to facilitateon-line trading, the system comprising: a web page scanner to scan a webpage to detect security symbol information; a trading control generatorto present a trading control to associate visually the trading controlwith the detected security symbol information, the trading control toaccess a trading service; an event detector to detect an eventassociated with the trading control; wherein responsive to the eventassociated with the trading control: determining that a user associatedwith the event has an account with the trading service; and determiningthat a secure session with the trading service has been established forthe user; and a trading ticket generator to launch a trading ticketassociated with the security symbol information, the trading ticketsuitable for submitting an order using the trading service.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the web page is associated with a third partyprovider distinct from a provider of the trading service.
 3. The systemof claim 1, comprising a session module to: determine that a userassociated with the event associated with the trading control has anaccount with the trading service, and determine that a secure sessionwith the trading service has been established for the user.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, comprising a web page source detector to determine,using the trading service, that the web page is a relevant financial orinvesting web page.
 5. The system of claim 1, comprising a securitysymbol resolver to: communicate, to the trading service, a requestincluding the security symbol information; and receive a resolvedsecurity symbol from the trading service.
 6. The system of claim 1,wherein the security symbol information is a name of a company.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1, comprising a session module to: responsive to theevent associated with the trading control, determine that a securesession with the trading service has not been established for a userassociated with the event associated with the trading control; andpresent an authentication dialog for the user.
 8. The system of claim 1,wherein the trading ticket generator is to: obtain, from the tradingservice, data suitable for pre-filling the trading ticket; and pre-fillthe trading ticket with the obtained data.
 9. The system of claim 1,wherein the event associated with the trading control comprises a clickevent.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the event associated with thetrading control comprises a hover event.
 11. A computer-implementedmethod to facilitate on-line trading, the method comprising: using oneor more processors to perform operations of: scanning a web page todetect security symbol information; presenting a trading control toassociate visually the trading control with the detected security symbolinformation, the trading control to access a trading service; detectingan event associated with the trading control; wherein responsive to theevent associated with the trading control: determining that a userassociated with the event has an account with the trading service; anddetermining that a secure session with the trading service has beenestablished or the user; and launching a trading ticket associated withthe security symbol information, the trading ticket suitable forsubmitting an order using the trading service.
 12. The method of claim11, wherein the web page is associated with a third party providerdistinct from a provider of the trading service.
 13. The method of claim11, comprising: determining, using the trading service, that the webpage is a relevant financial or investing web page.
 14. The method ofclaim 11, comprising: communicating, to the trading service, a requestincluding the security symbol information; and receiving a resolvedsecurity symbol from the trading service.
 15. The method of claim 11,wherein the security symbol information is a name of a company.
 16. Themethod of claim 11, comprising: responsive to the event associated withthe trading control determining that a secure session with the tradingservice has not been established for the user; and presenting anauthentication dialog.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the launchingof the trading ticket associated with the security symbol informationcomprises: obtaining, from the trading service, data suitable forpre-filling the trading ticket; and pre-filling the trading ticket withthe obtained data.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the eventassociated with the trading control comprises a click event.
 19. Amachine-readable non-transitory storage medium to facilitate on-linetrading, wherein the machine-readable non-transitory storage mediumhaving instruction data to cause a machine to: scan a web page to detectsecurity symbol information; present a trading control to associatevisually the trading control with the detected security symbolinformation, the trading control to access a trading service; detect anevent associated with the trading control; wherein responsive to theevent associated with the trading control: determining that a userassociated with the event has an account with the trading service; anddetermining that a secure session with the trading service has beenestablished for the user; and launch a trading ticket associated withthe security symbol information, the trading ticket suitable forsubmitting an order using the trading service.